Sunday, August 12, 2007

How Big is Your Baby

Our nephew (my sister-in-law's son) is about 3 weeks younger than our son, yet he's bigger. Much bigger. Our little guy started out at 7.11 lbs, and shot up to 18 lbs within 3 months. He then tapered off and now weighs a respectable 22 lbs.

Our nephew was born at 10.11 lbs (not a typo, and yes, via c-section), gained weight slowly, and recently weighed in at about 27 lbs. There is no question that he's bigger than our little guy...when they sit next to each other, the difference is intensely obvious. And pictures just don't do it justice. Our little guy looks so much smaller, and as such younger!

Just a reminder that despite shared genes, every baby is different. My sister-in-law was the first of my husband's siblings to have a baby, which happened to weigh 9.11 lbs at birth. My husband was about 10 lbs when he was born. I figured I was in serious trouble; I was petrified every time I got an ultrasound. I was expecting a big, big baby with a big, big head (common family trait, per frequent family discussions). And when I was 1 week late and went in for a final ultrasound, the technician figured our little bundle was no less than 8 1/2 lbs. It turns out we were all wrong since, as I mentioned, he was only (only!) 7.11 lbs. That said, his head circumference was in the 80th percentile, which is why they speculated labor didn't progress as hoped.

Anyway, weight and size are more interesting than important in my opinion. As long as your baby's healthy, it can be wee, ginormous, or anywhere in between, and everything's still fine and dandy. And sizes level off going forward too (our 9.11 lbs niece is now in the 20th percentile for height and weight).

And since stuff like that is interesting and fun to chart, here's a great website with a growth chart that gives you the tools to do just that.

1 comments:

MamaGeek @ Works For Us said...

I totally agree. Our little guy is now 22 pounds at 1 year.